From: Timothy Finin <finin@cs.umbc.edu>
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 1995 23:14:56 -0500
Message-Id: <199501280414.XAA21983@retriever.cs.umbc.edu>
To: kqml@cs.umbc.edu
Subject: SIGCOMM95 workshop on middleware
Reply-To: finin@cs.umbc.edu
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I think KQML and some of its poential applications fit within the
scope of this workshop.  Tim
___________________________________________________________________________

			      SIGCOMM95
			Workshop on Middleware
			  28-29 August 1995
			    Cambridge, MA

With the growth of the Internet and the corresponding agreement on a
common network and transport infrastructure comes a new
opportunity. The consensus on the use of the TCP/IP protocol suite,
including protocols for routing, addressing, and forwarding of
packets, end-to-end transport mechanisms, and standard protocols for
file transfer, remote login, electronic mail and network management
has resulted in a wide spread interoperable networking
infrastructure. This in turn is creating tremendous opportunities for
new and innovative services to be provided over the network. An
example of this is the rapid evolution of the World-Wide Web in the
last several years.

At the same time, the explosive growth in availability and use of the
Internet is creating new challenges. The existing infrastructure must
be extended if it is to continue to scale in numbers of users, offer
bandwidth guarantees, and support new classes of network
applications. These trends demand that we raise the level of common
services and introduce new types of higher-level
services. Interoperable information management, search, and retrieval
mechanisms would create opportunities for new third-party information
services. Interoperable payment mechanisms would spur the evolution of
electronic commerce. Interoperable multimedia representation formats
and exchange protocols would spur a new generation of group support
tools. There are opportunities to create many such middleware
components, including caching and replication services, indexing
services, remote scripting environments, data typing and structuring
primitives, and higher level communication abstractions such as
multicast and causal broadcast.

The purpose of this workshop is to explore this area of middleware
infrastructure. A specific objective is to identify and discuss those
areas of services that would sit "above" the traditional network
protocols and provide means for extending the the commonly available
services on the network to enclose higher layers of abstraction. A
critical question to be addressed is the balance between
standardization and the exploration of new concepts for middleware
services. Thus, identifying the appropriate level for standardization
and interoperability is expected to be a major topic of discussion at
the workshop. We plan to discuss the vision for where middleware is
heading. For example, what kind of middleware support is needed for
the integration of databases, information spaces (such as WWW), and
personal communication tools. Finally, engineering issues in
middleware implementation will be of interest. Questions will be
addressed such as how to engineer the interface between middleware and
TCP and how to take advantage of underneath IP multicast support in
caching and replication services.

The workshop will be organized based on invited participants. A
workshop of approximately 75 people is anticipated. Brief (no more
than three pages) position papers are welcome to aid in the selection
of workshop invitees.  These position papers are due no later than 15
March 1995. The workshop itself will last 1.5 days immediately
preceeding the main SIGCOMM'95 conference.

Position papers should be sent by electronic mail in ascii to
SC95WS@mercury.lcs.mit.edu. Questions should be addressed to the
Workshop Program Chair, Dr. Barry M. Leiner, BLeiner@arpa.mil.
_______________________________________________________________________
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